Sanitizer for July 7, 2020

Today’s Sanitizer was going to be about a spaceship. NASA is working on a mission to Mars and I was going to write about it. You will just have to wait. I couldn’t pull it together the way I want to – not in time anyway.  Maybe tomorrow or the next day. Just for a teaser, the mission’s name is “Perseverance.” Watch for more on the launch of “Perseverance,” NASA’s mission to Mars.
 
So while you wait to hear about space exploration, what do you get?  How about some of the most beloved words of Jesus. Here ya go:

Do Not Worry  (Mt. 6)
“25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[j] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?[k] 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God[l] and his[m] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
 
Crowds thronged to hear Jesus.  Is it any wonder?  I have never met a person who didn’t think they worried too much.  We all do.
 
Jesus said worry is squandering life.  What does worry improve?  Nothing.  What does worry accomplish?  Nothing.  Jesus asked, by worry can you extend your life?  Does it make you live a second longer?
 
No.
 
But it is so hard not worry.
 
There is one cure and only one cure.  Passing our worries, concerns, anxieties, fears on to God.
 
It has been said that “do not fear,” “do not be afraid” is the most repeated commandment in the Bible.  Literally hundreds of times we are told not to be afraid.
 
Do you want to be faithful?  Do you want to obey God?  Stop worrying.
 
Impossible!
 
Yes, it is impossible.  Fear creeps up on us.
 
The only antidote is turning our fears over to the one who can rid us of them.  We can give our fears and anxieties and worries to God.  That’s what he wants.  God wants to help us with this.
 
When we give God our fears, life is restored.
 
Can you recall the music of this hymn:
“You shall cross the barren desert, but you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand.
You shall see the face of God and live.

Be not afraid.
I go before you always;
Come follow me,
and I will give you rest.

If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow'r of hell and death is at your side,
know that I am with you through it all.

Be not afraid.
I go before you always;
Come follow me,
and I will give you rest.

Blessed are your poor, for the kingdom shall be theirs.
Blest are you that weep and mourn, for one day you shall laugh.
And if wicked men insult and hate you all because of me,
blessed, blessed are you!

Be not afraid.
I go before you always;
Come follow me,
and I will give you rest.”  – Fr. Robert Dufford, S.J.
 
We don’t shed our fears once for all.  We need Jesus to take them away over and over again.  He always will, you know.
 
I write to you about anxiety and fear with authority because I am a “world class worrier.”  The only ultimate freedom from worry is in Jesus.  In your mind, picture tying your fears in a bundle and putting them at the foot of the cross of Christ.  He will take them.  Fear not.